Your Practice Needs Your Attention

Has your practice experienced a decline in patient visits, new patients and new patient inquiries? Have you seen an increase in cancellations and no-shows? Would you like to know how some practitioners are reversing this trend? Here are four things they do to help ensure patient satisfaction and loyalty.

Keep Appointments – Nothing annoys patients more than waiting 30, 60, 90 minutes or more to see their doctor. From the patient’s perspective, having a health problem is inconvenient enough. Feeling that their own time and schedules are insignificant to the doctor, and being made to wait for their time with the doctor adds insult to injury. Physicians who run on time are likely to have more compliant, less disgruntled patients.

Build Relationships – If patients feel like you care about them, they are less likely to seek other practitioners. Build relationships by making eye contact, listening and providing thorough explanations of treatment options and expected benefits. This may seem like an obvious no-brainer, but get to know your patients by name. Use their name when you talk to them. Successful physicians know their patients well. They know their patients’ hobbies and interests and, often, they know their families, too.

Perform Regular Patient Satisfaction Surveys– Survey your patients at regular intervals to determine how satisfied they are with your services, personnel and practice. Let patients tell you how you might improve your care. Address negative feedback immediately and personally. Call or speak to the unhappy patient and try to resolve their complaints swiftly. They’ll tell their friends and relatives how you went out of your way to help them.

Speak Their Language – Talk to your patients, not at them. Explain their health problem and treatment options thoroughly in lay terms, not medical clinician lingo. Patients don’t think in clinical terms, and many are reluctant to ask questions. So try to think like a patient instead of like a clinician. Then speak their language when communicating your services and benefits.

Practice Builders helps physicians and other healthcare practitioners improve their services and achieve success every day. Ask us how we can help you today.

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Howard Edgar

Senior Director of Creative Services

Howard began his career as a copywriter with a Madison Avenue ad agency, then entered the medical world as a senior writer and video producer for medical rehabilitation and fitness equipment manufacturer Cybex. During that time, he wrote extensively about health - and fitness-related issues for physicians and physical therapists. In 1998, he joined Practice Builders as a copywriter. Howard has also written weekly opinion columns and covered health, politics, crime, medical and environmental issues as an investigative reporter and columnist for two Florida-based newspapers. The recipient of over 50 writing awards, including Writer's Digest awards for screenwriting and short-story writing, Howard is also the author of two nonfiction self-help books. He received his bachelor's degree in English and Fine Arts from Clemson University.

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Look at Your Practice Through Your Patients’ Eyes Has your practice experienced a decline in patient visits, new patients and new patient inquiries? Have you seen an increase in cancellations and no-shows? Would you like to know how some practitioners … Continue reading →